Sihanoukville has been my home for the last five days. I have soent my time doiing nothing but lay on a sun lounger and chat to the local beach sellers. I now know half of them by name and have learnt some valuable Khmer sentences like, 'ah tin tay'- I no buy, or 'ah tin gai'- i no want a manicure (actually it doesn't mean that, something similar and they love it when I say it- it probably means 'I am a stingy barang who has no sympathy for your plight' ).
You also have to deal with the beggars on the beach. Everytime you see one you know they have an entire family to feed and probably begging on the beach is their families sole income. A number of the kids I spoke to said at least one of their parents, often the father, was dead and that their mum made the jewellery and they sold it.
But the beggars are heart breaking and everytime they come past your mind goes through a whole series of dilemmas and emotions. One older man with the kindest smiling eyes spent his days sliding himself along the sand using his arms, his legs, amputated to below the knee, trailing along behind leaving a tell tale track that upsets you everytime you see even that. Another much older lady used her frail and elderly grandfather, she carried him in front of her forcing him to take step after step even though he looked ready to die. Thanks to its tragic history Cambodia has one amputee for every 290 people due to the number of landmines scattered throughout the countryside. That is all I will say about it for now but there is plenty of information on the internet about the problem and solutions if you want to know more.
Eek, this blog is getting serious but I wanted to also talk about about the in your face prostitution that also exists here. Katie, my Australian friend,and I hired motorbikes for the day and explored the surrounding beaches and towns. It was muddy and slidy and fun traversing the under-maintained roads. In the afternoon we visited Victory hill where we had read there were a number of bars and guesthouses catering to the backpacker trade. Obviously this literature is out of date as the entire strip consisted of hostess bars with lady boys and beautiful young girls spilling out of the establishmants. We entered the safest looking one to have a beer and play pool before we headed back to our guesthouse. Immediatly two 'taxi girls' set up the pool table for us and begun a game for us. Poor Katie was terrified as the English owner was standing behind the bar yelling at one of the other girls whose friend had not shown up, two older Thai men were grumpily perched at the bar waiting for her arrival. No Boom Boom for them I guess. The sign behind the bar read 'If a girl leaves her shift before midnight you pay $10, after midnight $5'. The girls were all young and beautiful. The men were the cliched old and ugly. We skulled our beers finished the game and rode our motorbikes fast back to our guesthouse, the fresh air blowing away our utter disgust at what we had just seen. A few nights later I was at one of the beach bars when about 10 young Cambodian girls walked in, it was the same group of girls from the hostess bar. They had a night off. We all danced around and chatted when I realised a few loner European men were closing in on the girls. I told one old man off who was eager to take one of the girls, telling him it was her night off and to f*** Off. He disappeared into a corner and I think eventually got what he wanted. There is more to this story and their are many agencies working in Cambodia trying to help the girls stuck in prostition but given it is everywhere it will be a long struggle before these girls are able to provide for themselves without haveing to prostitute themselves.
So sihanoukville. Interesting. Littered with problems.
